Dare you enter the gates of Chinese Hell?
November 11, 2014 1:27 AM Subscribe
The Chinese hell scrolls presented here treat the afterlife as a spectacle, as a display intended for public consumption. Ostensibly based on popular tales such as Tang Emperor Taizong's visit to hell in the first half of the seventh century C.E., they attract their viewers through their dark and yet cartoonish torture scenes, appealing to the same morbid curiosity fed by gothic novels, horror movies and Halloween ghosts in the West. Yet their main function was not entertainment but didactic, propagating a basic message of retribution. Every act of goodness will be rewarded; every act of evil will be justly answered.-- From the introduction to the online collection of Chinese hell scrolls developed by Ken Brashiek at Reed College.
We also would have accepted "Chinese got a lot of hells."
posted by lumensimus at 2:01 AM on November 11, 2014 [13 favorites]
posted by lumensimus at 2:01 AM on November 11, 2014 [13 favorites]
A detail of the beadles, about how suicides end up in the bureaucracy of hell, made me wonder if that's where Beetlejuice got it.
posted by fleacircus at 2:17 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by fleacircus at 2:17 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
This is a particularly wonderful imagining of Hell.
Sure, there's torture and suffering, but "the tradition of depicting hell as a bureaucratic series of courts overseen by magistrates dates back to at least the Tang Dynasty."
That's Hell, isn't it? A bunch of bureaucrats filing your paperwork. A court date next month. The judge is sick that day. Your court hearing was postponed. More paperwork. Another court date, two months later. You arrive early for your court date but the whole building has been shut down for fumigation. You get a letter in the mail saying that you missed your court date. You complain, because it wasn't your fault. They schedule a hearing about your complaint. You get up early and travel to court. But the court is closed due to a bomb threat. Then they send a notice to your lawyer, saying that you've been fined several thousand dollars for not showing up in court to contest a previous fine. You complain that there wasn't a previous fine at all, that you've always paid all your fines on time, but your lawyer says that you never paid him for defending you against a bomb threat, and you say "I didn't have anything to do with that bomb threat". But the magistrate calls you in for a special session because you've complained about your lawyer and they send you to a special psychiatric exam, where they ask you if you planted insects in the court building, and you say "no, I have no idea what you're talking about. Can I please go home?" But they won't let you go home because you owe hundreds of dollars in parking fines because your car was outside the courthouse the whole time your dumbfuck lawyer was negotiating on your behalf, and meanwhile the judge is screwing your wife and your kids have started to deal crack so they can eat.
I'm sure we've all been there. Even 19th century Chinese.
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:45 AM on November 11, 2014 [4 favorites]
Sure, there's torture and suffering, but "the tradition of depicting hell as a bureaucratic series of courts overseen by magistrates dates back to at least the Tang Dynasty."
That's Hell, isn't it? A bunch of bureaucrats filing your paperwork. A court date next month. The judge is sick that day. Your court hearing was postponed. More paperwork. Another court date, two months later. You arrive early for your court date but the whole building has been shut down for fumigation. You get a letter in the mail saying that you missed your court date. You complain, because it wasn't your fault. They schedule a hearing about your complaint. You get up early and travel to court. But the court is closed due to a bomb threat. Then they send a notice to your lawyer, saying that you've been fined several thousand dollars for not showing up in court to contest a previous fine. You complain that there wasn't a previous fine at all, that you've always paid all your fines on time, but your lawyer says that you never paid him for defending you against a bomb threat, and you say "I didn't have anything to do with that bomb threat". But the magistrate calls you in for a special session because you've complained about your lawyer and they send you to a special psychiatric exam, where they ask you if you planted insects in the court building, and you say "no, I have no idea what you're talking about. Can I please go home?" But they won't let you go home because you owe hundreds of dollars in parking fines because your car was outside the courthouse the whole time your dumbfuck lawyer was negotiating on your behalf, and meanwhile the judge is screwing your wife and your kids have started to deal crack so they can eat.
I'm sure we've all been there. Even 19th century Chinese.
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:45 AM on November 11, 2014 [4 favorites]
Here's a related post from 2009 and an Archive link for the moved page.
posted by tykky at 4:13 AM on November 11, 2014
posted by tykky at 4:13 AM on November 11, 2014
Which comes first: Does the depiction of hellish tortures inspire actual tortures, or are all the hells depicted ones we've already made for each other?
Let us count the tortures in these images, and note that all of them have been used to create hell on earth:
posted by clawsoon at 6:38 AM on November 11, 2014
Let us count the tortures in these images, and note that all of them have been used to create hell on earth:
- Tongue ploughing.
- Decapitation.
- Crucifixion.
- Torture of the weights and scales (looks like his arms and legs are tied together behind his back, and he's hanging from them).
- Torture of cutting and sawing.
- ...etc...
posted by clawsoon at 6:38 AM on November 11, 2014
It's interesting to see how much of the Korean and Japanese folk conceptions of hell are derived from Chinese hell, which in turn draws from Indian deities. Specifically there is Yama, the ruler of the underworld as well as judge of the spirits, referred to as Yan Wang in China, Yeomna in Korea, and Enma in Japan.
(Hoozuki no Reitetsu is a manga, also adapted to anime, about a bureaucrat in Hell who serves Enma.)
posted by needled at 7:04 AM on November 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
(Hoozuki no Reitetsu is a manga, also adapted to anime, about a bureaucrat in Hell who serves Enma.)
posted by needled at 7:04 AM on November 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
Brashier, not Brashiek.
posted by homerica at 7:15 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by homerica at 7:15 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
It's interesting to see how much of the Korean and Japanese folk conceptions of hell are derived from Chinese hell, which in turn draws from Indian deities.
Actually, I was going to say exactly the opposite, it's amazing how different the Japanese hell scrolls are, since they draw on buddhist iconography rather than hindu. I don't know about Korean art, my specialty is Japanese art so I'll stick to that. But there is a whole genre of Hell Scrolls in Japanese art that are vivid and grotesque, and are almost solely about the tortures of hell.
Yes, there are Japanese paintings like the Chinese ones, like this Ten Kings of Hell image. I have not studied much Chinese art, but perhaps there are vivid descriptions of hell in Chinese art too. But AFAIK it's distinctive of Japanese art, perhaps distinctive of Japanese buddhism.
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:40 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
Actually, I was going to say exactly the opposite, it's amazing how different the Japanese hell scrolls are, since they draw on buddhist iconography rather than hindu. I don't know about Korean art, my specialty is Japanese art so I'll stick to that. But there is a whole genre of Hell Scrolls in Japanese art that are vivid and grotesque, and are almost solely about the tortures of hell.
Yes, there are Japanese paintings like the Chinese ones, like this Ten Kings of Hell image. I have not studied much Chinese art, but perhaps there are vivid descriptions of hell in Chinese art too. But AFAIK it's distinctive of Japanese art, perhaps distinctive of Japanese buddhism.
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:40 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
(Hoozuki no Reitetsu is a manga, also adapted to anime, about a bureaucrat in Hell who serves Enma.)
Lately the concept of shinigami or "soul reapers" as it is commonly translated (which is derived from the Brothers Grimm and imported to Japan) has overshadowed Enma-dai-oh, but my favourite manga about netherworld bureaucrats will always be Yami no Matsuei/ Descendants of Darkness.
TvTropes link to shinigami in case you have some hours to spare.
posted by sukeban at 10:19 AM on November 11, 2014
Lately the concept of shinigami or "soul reapers" as it is commonly translated (which is derived from the Brothers Grimm and imported to Japan) has overshadowed Enma-dai-oh, but my favourite manga about netherworld bureaucrats will always be Yami no Matsuei/ Descendants of Darkness.
TvTropes link to shinigami in case you have some hours to spare.
posted by sukeban at 10:19 AM on November 11, 2014
I once saw an exhibition of "hell screens" (there's an Akutagawa short story of the same name) in a cool art deco pre-war municipal building in a small city in outback Japan (the neighbouring city recently hosted an exhibition of Bactrian sculpture from Bamiyan in Afghanistan, and I saw an awesome Chagall exhibit in yet another rural town; outback Japan is amazing).
Anyway, the screens were amazing, and amazingly gory. Most were created in medieval times, about 500 years ago during the Japanese version of the Reformation, when there was an effort to educate, and save, a largely illiterate peasantry.
The hell screens played a key role, educating people who could not read about the fate the might befall them in the afterlife.
The concept of Hell is still very real in Japanese culture. When my father-in-law died there was I think a six-day period from the wake (o-tsuya) to the actual funeral (o-soshiki) while my FIL's soul made its passage to the underworld for judgement essentially at the gates of Hell.
Traditionally the Buddhist bodhisattva Jizo guides the dead to their judgement and their final destination. The number 6 has a ton of significance with Jizo and Hell. Outside of every farming hamlet you'll typically see six stone statues of Jizo located near a well or underground spring. In urban or suburbanized Japan you can often tell where the old villages were before they were assimilated into the sprawl by the location of these six stone statues.
As my link above explains, solitary "Jizo"/not-Jizo statues also mark mountain passes.
The interesting thing about Buddhism in China, Japan, or other NE Asian countries is that it is a "syncretic" religion, leading to an incredible amount of esoterica and symbolism.
posted by Nevin at 10:22 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
Anyway, the screens were amazing, and amazingly gory. Most were created in medieval times, about 500 years ago during the Japanese version of the Reformation, when there was an effort to educate, and save, a largely illiterate peasantry.
The hell screens played a key role, educating people who could not read about the fate the might befall them in the afterlife.
The concept of Hell is still very real in Japanese culture. When my father-in-law died there was I think a six-day period from the wake (o-tsuya) to the actual funeral (o-soshiki) while my FIL's soul made its passage to the underworld for judgement essentially at the gates of Hell.
Traditionally the Buddhist bodhisattva Jizo guides the dead to their judgement and their final destination. The number 6 has a ton of significance with Jizo and Hell. Outside of every farming hamlet you'll typically see six stone statues of Jizo located near a well or underground spring. In urban or suburbanized Japan you can often tell where the old villages were before they were assimilated into the sprawl by the location of these six stone statues.
As my link above explains, solitary "Jizo"/not-Jizo statues also mark mountain passes.
The interesting thing about Buddhism in China, Japan, or other NE Asian countries is that it is a "syncretic" religion, leading to an incredible amount of esoterica and symbolism.
posted by Nevin at 10:22 AM on November 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
Actually, I was going to say exactly the opposite, it's amazing how different the Japanese hell scrolls are, since they draw on buddhist iconography rather than hindu.
Yeah, but a many of the Buddhist icons come from Hindu mythology.
posted by Nevin at 10:23 AM on November 11, 2014
Yeah, but a many of the Buddhist icons come from Hindu mythology.
posted by Nevin at 10:23 AM on November 11, 2014
Matthew Meyer has been illustrating youkai for a while (check his blog for the "A-Yokai-A-Day" posts). He also has this awesome post on the Japanese underworld with plenty of pictures.
And from MATCHA: ”Senkou-Temple” Hell Thriller in Osaka Hirano
posted by sukeban at 10:34 AM on November 11, 2014
And from MATCHA: ”Senkou-Temple” Hell Thriller in Osaka Hirano
posted by sukeban at 10:34 AM on November 11, 2014
That's Hell, isn't it? A bunch of bureaucrats filing your paperwork. A court date next month.
The excerpt in the punishments assigned page is a good example of what you're talking about. Bureaucratic limbo is spiritual limbo.
It also in a way seems to legitimizing the bureaucracy, signal an acceptance of the idea that sometimes you're just randomly fucked and that kind of thing is built into the universe. You certainly can't expect to win against it.
posted by fleacircus at 1:34 PM on November 11, 2014
The excerpt in the punishments assigned page is a good example of what you're talking about. Bureaucratic limbo is spiritual limbo.
It also in a way seems to legitimizing the bureaucracy, signal an acceptance of the idea that sometimes you're just randomly fucked and that kind of thing is built into the universe. You certainly can't expect to win against it.
posted by fleacircus at 1:34 PM on November 11, 2014
I love "The threshold to hell (Please click to enter.)"
You'd think either Facebook or Apple would have trademarked that by now.
posted by uosuaq at 3:34 PM on November 11, 2014
You'd think either Facebook or Apple would have trademarked that by now.
posted by uosuaq at 3:34 PM on November 11, 2014
A lot of Chinese temples during the 1800s and early 1900s built these sort of Taoist/Confucianist/Kitchen God versions of the scared strait, "Hell House" that fundamentalists seem to enjoy as of late. You see statues of the various "sins" that will wind you in hell (the usual pantheon familiar to the West - sex, drinking, gambling, etc.) then you see the horrors of hell, the burning, flaying, gnashing of teeth. You also of course get to see the virtues and heroes that will keep you out of hell. They are, as you can imagine pretty tacky, lots of plaster of paris gore.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:29 AM on November 12, 2014
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:29 AM on November 12, 2014
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posted by Paul Slade at 1:48 AM on November 11, 2014